I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a lawn edger and more specifically, to an arbor for a vertical drive shaft lawn edger.
II. Description of the Related Art
The present invention contemplates a new and improved vertical drive shaft lawn edger that is simple in design, effective in use, and overcomes the foregoing difficulties and others while providing better and more advantageous overall results.
Lawn edgers are widely used in maintaining the appearance of lawns. They are primarily used to trim grass along the edges of driveways and curbs.
The prior art edgers typically use a horizontal output shaft that rotates a vertical cutting blade. A vertical drive pulley rotates a vertical driven pulley through a V-belt. The driven pulley rotates a vertical edger blade, which has a horizontal rotational axis. A vertical drive shaft engine has a horizontal driven pulley with its rotational axis vertical. In this arrangement, the V-belt is twisted to translate the vertical rotation of the drive pulley to the horizontal rotation of the driven pulley. The horizontal drive shaft engine configuration is preferred since the pulleys and the blade are oriented uniformly. However, lawn edgers with a horizontal drive shaft engine are relatively expensive because they are not as common as engines with a vertical drive shaft. Lawn mower engines typically utilize vertical drive shafts because many more lawnmowers are sold than are lawn edgers, engines with vertical drive shafts are produced in greater numbers and are therefore less expensive. Therefore, lawn edgers utilizing vertical drive shaft engines are desirable.
Vertical drive shaft lawn edgers typically feature engines mounted at the center of the unit. The engine is the heaviest item of the lawn edger. As such, equal distribution of weight along the support means is desired.
It is also desired to have the edging means extend outwardly from the lawn edger yet still be rigid and stable. The horizontal drive shaft engines are able to have the drive shaft in line with the driven pulley. Therefore, the distance between the edging means and the drive pulley is at a minimum. However, with vertical drive shaft engines this distance is increased due to the vertical orientation of the drive shaft.